Katt Girl, Robin, & The Harley Kidd: Chapter 22: Catch 22 by Chad Sheefel 11/26/19
"Hmm … Would I rather take on a large menacing crocodile, or … go past a chemical spill and possibly take on a couple of ghosts?" Dick thought out loud.
"I don't know if I want to go past that stinky chemical plant." Lola stated. "Besides, ghosts' scare me. At least I can punch a real person." she proclaimed.
"Can't we just flip a coin already? Dick asked.
"Well … we could try to take on those 20 guards from Bane's army. But ... Alfred said to get to Wayne Enterprise without getting noticed. And … there is already six of his men looking for us as we speak, not to mention, more men will be looking for us soon." Gabby said in a long breath. "I will be honest, I would rather take my chances with the nasty smell of the chemical clean up site, and ... "ghosts" … than take on a huge crocodile."
"Fine! But … if we run into any ghosts, it better be Casper!" Lola exclaimed. "Does anyone have a proton pack and a ghost trap?" Lola laughed.
Katt Girl, Robin, and The Harley Kidd began their detour toward the Axis Chemical cleanup site.
"My brother Chad is still out here somewhere. He has become a superhero called The Shadow Master. He could probably beat up Bane, the ghosts, and the crocodile … at the same time." Dick said as they quickly moved along.
"Our mom is Catwoman. She would claw all their eyes out." Lola proclaimed.
"What? Your mom is Catwoman? She is the one that helped me look for Chad. But … she got shot and fell off of Wayne Enterprise." Dick stated.
"That was probably the other Selina, not our mom Selina … well … I don't know how to explain it." Gabby said while sounding confused.
"Let's just call her Aunt Selina." Lola simplified.
"I know mom is still alive. I can sense it. Must be a Cat and daughter thing." Gabby said.
"Brewsky always seems to find a way to win. I am sure they are making their way back. They probably have to find a way to get across the water, since Bane destroyed the bridges." Lola replied.
Meanwhile, close to Wayne Manor, Catherine and her five year old son Jason, were spotted by Bane's men. The six men had been driving around looking for D3, when they spotted the mother and child approaching the gates of Wayne Manor. The men drove up to them, blocking the entrance to the manor. Then they jumped out of their military jeep. Catherine crouched down to hold Jason, as the bright lights from the jeep let off a blinding glare. A couple of the men ripped Jason out of her arms. Jason bit one of the men on the wrist, then kicked him in the shin. The other man grabbed Jason even tighter as Jason tried squirming away. Then, the man that was bitten, backhanded Jason across the face. Blood flew from Jason's lip, but Jason was tough and didn't even cry. He just looked up at the man with a mean stare. The other four men were assaulting Catherine. They were trying to feel her up and get her pants off of her.
"Hold still you crackhead!" One of the men said.
"Hurry up and do what you gotta do already, so I can whack these two." Another man said.
Suddenly, the six men were startled when a giant spotlight was turned on in their direction.
"Release the woman and child, then vacate the premises!" A voice demanded over a loudspeaker.
"Shoot out the light!" One of Bane's men yelled.
They let go of Catherine and Jason, then began shooting at the spotlight. Jason ran over to his mom to try to help her up, then they began trying to run away.
One of Bane's men noticed them trying for their escape. "Where do you think you're going!" The man yelled while firing shots in their direction.
Catherine stayed behind Jason to shield him as they ran off out of sight. The man that shot at them gave chase. Catherine and Jason hid behind a bush, then watched as the man ran past them.
"Okay Mom, he's gone. Let's get out of here before he comes back around." Jason whispered.
His mom didn't respond. "Come on Mom." He said as he looked over at her. "Mom!?" he yelled as he noticed her slumped over.
He tried to hold her up. Then he noticed there was blood on his hands after touching her back. The man heard him crying out, then approached Jason.
"There you are you little bastard. Aww … did poor mommy bite the dust? Don't worry, you are about to join her!" He said with a menacing grin.
Just as he was about to point the gun at Jason, a sword slashed right through his arm, cutting it clean off. The arm and the gun landed on the ground. The man was stunned. Then, he felt the sword go through his back. He looked down to see the point of the sword protruding from his stomach. Then the sword twisted, as the man fell to the ground dead. Jason looked up, Azrael was standing there in his body armor. Jason thought he was about to be next.
"I'm not going to hurt you kid." Azrael stated as he kneeled down and picked Catherine up from the ground. "Come on. I know another way around."
Bane's men had managed to shoot out the spotlight, then tried making their way closer to the house. One of the men tried using his walkie talkie to call in to their commander, but all he got was static. Alfred had managed to scramble his frequency. Two of the men sprinted off in a different direction, while the other three approached the front door. They tried shooting out windows, but stopped because the bullets were ricocheting back at them.
"Man, they got this place like a fortress! Let's see if we can find another way around." one of the men said.
They started running around to the side of the manor, when suddenly, they fell into a large hole. The hole was nearly fifteen feet deep. They tried jumping up, but they were too white to jump that high. Then, one of the men tried to stand on the other man's shoulder. They still couldn't reach. Then they started yelling for the other two men. Suddenly the trapped men hear gunfire in the distance. … On the other side of the hill, leading to the back door of the manor, Alfred managed to set up decoy dummies, made from Martha Wayne's store-like manikins. Alfred had them on a motion sensor track. The two men shredded the manikins in half, then made their way over to check out their kill.
"What the hell! These are just dummies! One of the men exclaimed.
Then a voice was heard in the distance. "I'm afraid you gentlemen are the dummies." Alfred stated.
As they turn to point their guns in his direction … Swoosh! … Their ankles are nabbed up by a rope, then they are pulled upside down, and hanged nearly ten feet off the ground. They also dropped their guns due to the sudden jerk. One of the men reached for a knife, then proceeded to cut through the rope. He finally got the rope cut, then fell hard to the ground. As soon as he stood up to regain his composure, POW! he was hit with a sneak attack punch. The man fell back down again. He looked up to see Azrael standing there, with a sword up over his head, about to strike him dead.
Just before he could strike Bane's fallen man, Alfred yelled out. "Azrael! Stop!"
Azrael stopped just before the sword could split the man's skull in half. Then, Azrael smashed his boot to the side of his head, knocking the man out cold. Then he looked up at the man that was hanging. Azrael could hear pee dripping and hitting the ground.
"I will take it from here, Sir Azrael! Alfred said.
Azrael walked away in disapproval of Alfred's methods to retain Bane's army. Instead, Azrael would have rather gotten rid of them, before they could become more of a nuisance. A nurse, in Alfred's new family, was tending to Jason and Catherine's wounds. Jason only had some scratches and bruises, but Catherine had been shot, and was still barely alive. Jason stayed next to her the entire time.
D3 finally made it to the Axis Chemical clean up site. As they hid, they could see some of Bane's army standing about a block from the site. His army probably didn't want to get any closer because the smell and fumes were so bad. Unfortunately, that meant D3 would need to head into the clean up area, in order to stay undetected. They find an opening in the fence. The opening looked like somebody used wire-cutters to get in. There was about ten large containers placed near the middle of the site. They tried sneaking between them.
"Eww! ... This smell is enough to make you puke!" Dick whispered loudly.
"Shush! … Un ... dee ... tect ... ed, remember? Gabby said as a reminder.
D3 got startled, when suddenly they were approached by Jack Napier and Harleen Quinsel. Jack was dressed up in one of the purple suits Harleen stole from Falcone's department store. He carried a long crowbar, but used it as a cane. Harleen was wearing her half-red, half-black, white polka dotted Harley Quinn outfit. She also carried a large gavel that was bigger than a sledge hammer.
"I like your outfit, chick!" Harley Quinn stated to The Harley Kidd. Then she tapped on the side of one of the barrels, and said, "Now, we just need to dip you into one of these soothing soup bowls, and you can look just like me and my puddin.
You're crazy! Exclaimed Lola, as she put her dukes up.
Harley Quinn looked over at Jack and said. "Aw Puddin, she doesn't want to be like us."
Then Jack looked at Katt Girl and Robin, grew a huge grin on his face, then said, "What about you two little rascals? Wouldn't you love to join the avant garde of having this fair skin, ruby red lips, and a hair color so natural, only your undertaker knows for sure. Ha Ha Ha He He Hoo Hoo Hoo!"
"What do you think you are? Some kind of joker?" Robin said.
"I guess you could say ... I am! Hoo Hoo Hoo, He he he! ... Then, Jack's face went from a huge smile into a long frown, as he could tell that the kids weren't entertained. "Oh forget it! These three are boring! … Let's kill'em"
D3 got into a fighting stance, preparing for battle. Harley Quinn swung her large gavel at Robin. Robin quickly dodged out of the way. Then, Jack took a swing at Lola with his crowbar. Lola managed to block it with her stick. Then she pushed a button and made it extend into a bat. Jack's eyes got wide, as he watched the bat smack him in the head. Gabby snapped her whip, pulling the gavel out of Harley Quinns hand. Gabby followed it up with a roundhouse kick to Harley Quinn's face. Harley Quinn was stunned for a second, but shook it off, picked her gavel back off the ground, then started swinging it wildly in Gabby's direction. Gabby quickly jumped out of the way. The gavel was smashing against the sides of the containers, as Harley Quinn was relentless in her efforts to smash Gabby like a bug. Jack started to get back up. Robin saw him and jumped up on Jack like a spider monkey, then started punching Jack's face multiple times. Jack finally managed to throw him off. But, just as he did that, Jack was swept out from under his feet, When Lola hit him in the legs with the bat. Harley Quinn loaded up for one final hard swing of her gavel. Gabby jumped out of the way just in time. The gavel smashed into one of the containers and busted a hole in it. The green toxic waste spewed out and threw up all over Harley Quinn. The sound of sizzling on Harley's skin was traumatic to Gabby because she could remember that noise after barely making it out of the Axis Chemical explosion. Harley fell to the ground, landing into the puddle of ooze. D3 had to quickly cover their noses as the heat from the fumes started to raise off the ground.
Suddenly, they hear a man yell out, "Who is back there!?. "Who ever it is, show yourself!" he demanded.
D3 quickly dashed off in the opposite direction of the man's voice, hopped a fence, then got as far away as possible. Four of Bane's men came in looking around. They plugged their noses when they got to the container that was spilling out toxic waste. Jack and Harley Quinn weren't there anymore. Bane's men couldn't stand the smell anymore and left the site. Jack and Harley's heads popped up out of one of the containers, then they started laughing. They turned to look at each other, started kissing, as their bodies sank back down into the sludge.
D3 could finally see Wayne Enterprise in their sights. They hoped to make it there without any other scary interruptions.
Chapter Recap: (The six men from Bane's army found Catherine and Jason near Wayne Manor. They had the mother and child surrounded, but their attention was turned toward Wayne Manor after Alfred shined a spotlight on them. Catherine was shot in the back as her and Jason fled the scene. Azrael killed one of the men before the man could kill Jason. The other five men fell into traps. D3 was confronted by Jack Napier and Harley Quinn. D3 fought, but managed to get away, then made it closer to Wayne Enterprise.)